In the future, Earth may not be in any danger from asteroids. Chinese researchers to use rockets to deflect them
BEIJING: Chinese researchers want to send more than 20 of China's largest rockets to practice turning away a sizable asteroid - a technique that may eventually be crucial if a killer rock is on a collision course with Earth.
The idea is more than science fiction. Sometime between late 2021 to early 2022, the United States will launch a robotic spacecraft to intercept two asteroids relatively close to Earth.
When it arrives a year later, the NASA spacecraft will crash-land on the smaller of the two rocky bodies to see how much the asteroid's trajectory changes. It will be humanity's first try at changing the course of a celestial body.
At China's National Space Science Center, researchers found in simulations that 23 Long March 5 rockets hitting simultaneously could deflect a large asteroid from its original path by a distance 1.4 times the Earth's radius.
Their calculations are based on an asteroid dubbed Bennu, orbiting the sun, which is as wide as the Empire State Building is tall. It belongs to a class of rocks with the potential to cause regional or continental damage. Asteroids spanning more than 1 km would have global consequences.
This seems LONG overdue. Scientists have speculated for some time that asteroids may have killed off the dinosaurs; yet we've done nothing to safeguard humanity from that same fate.
In the future, Earth may not be in any danger from asteroids. Chinese researchers to use rockets to deflect them
BEIJING: Chinese researchers want to send more than 2 ...[text shortened]... nal or continental damage. Asteroids spanning more than 1 km would have global consequences.
Sure, this may work if you can spot it and predict the trajectory a year in advance, but lots of asteroids have irregular orbits and seem to come out of nowhere, and fast. These are really difficult to spot in the sky until it would be too late to launch. Getting this to work in a reliable way requires the development of much more advanced early detection systems as well.
@vivify Within the next 8 years three huge asteroids will be visiting Earth, the smallest one being Apophis. Official experts say that we are in no danger, so nothing to worry about --- unless they are wrong --- but they probably aren't --- maybe.
@bunnyknightsaid @vivify Within the next 8 years three huge asteroids will be visiting Earth, the smallest one being Apophis. Official experts say that we are in no danger, so nothing to worry about --- unless they are wrong --- but they probably aren't --- maybe.
if there really is an asteroid on collision course w/ earth, would you want to know? Say there's no way to avoid an impact....should the population be told? Personally, I wouldn't want to know.
@ogbsaid if there really is an asteroid on collision course w/ earth, would you want to know? Say there's no way to avoid an impact....should the population be told? Personally, I wouldn't want to know.
Personally, I would prefer to know, just so I could avoid making useless long term plans and have time to find a perfect location to observe the spectacular event.
The reality, however, is that the wealthy elites would definitely not want chaos to unfold until they and their families are safely tucked in their underground cities where they can survive 10 or more years until the surface clears up.
Without people to do work for them, the rich and their families will not survive long.
I'm sure they have thought of that, as they are quite clever. They have room for tens of thousands of 'necessary personnel' who will be well taken care of for doing all the hard work to rebuild civilization. But if history teaches anything, those with power will eventually get too greedy and the cycle of revolutions and wars will resume.
@vivify Research has been ongoing for decades and the main conclusion is, don't use nukes!
Now there are ideas like running a craft close to make the tiny gravitational interaction between the probe and the asteroid cleverly designed to cause a shift in the asteroid's orbit, moving it enough so it doesn't impact Earth.
One house sized asteroid can ruin your day🙂
Research into deflecting asteroids
08 Jul '21 13:54
Back to Top